The invention relates to an assembly of a cartridge and a cartridge clamp as described in the preamble of claim 1.
Such an assembly is known from EP-A-2,278,325. This assembly of which the cartridge is sometimes called a flow through cartridge is used for selecting an analyte online with high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) based on solid phase extraction (SPE). The cartridge clamp of the known assembly comprises clamping jaws having sharp circular ribs which during clamping are driven into the end faces of the cartridge for fixing and sealing. The cartridge of the known assembly has a cartridge body comprising a core of a first material and sealing rings constituting surface portions of the end faces of the cartridge body, which sealing rings are made of a second material. During clamping, clamping pressures of about 2500 N may be applied on the sealing rings by the clamping jaws and pressures of up to 100 MPa may be applied to the passage through the cartridge body to perform SPE. At such high pressures the HPLC is called UHPLC (ultra high performance liquid chromatography) and amongst other things sample loading can be sped up and cycle time is reduced. To prevent leakages from occurring as a result of such high pressures EP-A-2,278,325 teaches that the first material is stronger and stiffer than the second material. Since the second material, e.g., aliphatic polyamide (NYLON), polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) or polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) is more flexible than the first material, e.g., polyether ether ketone (PEEK) or fiber reinforced polyphenylene sulfide (PPS), a hermetic seal between the clamping faces of the clamping jaws and the end faces of the cartridge is, according to EP-A-2,278,325, reliably obtained. Although the known assembly performs satisfactory at such high pressures it appears that in some cases leakage occurs between the sealing rings and cartridge body.